The Voice

Easter at the C--------r's 

So it's been quite the week out here in these here hills. The week started off with a bang,  when we took a little road trip out to McCarr, a little "town" on the Kentucky/West Virginia border, trying to contact a media referral. So we're driving along, following the GPS as it takes us deeper and deeper into the hills of Kentucky. (Which are insanely beautiful right now by the way. I honestly had no idea God created this many shades of green. I can understand why people here have lived here for generations and generations. I guess these hills just get in your blood.) 

Anyway, we're driving along, and after we stopped on the side of the road for a bathroom break (NOWHERE has public restrooms out here, and there wasn't even anywhere that would have had even a remote chance of having bathrooms out where we were . . . so, you do what you have to, ya know?  #MissionLife  #WelcomeToTheWVCM) The GPS leads us to this little tiny trailer out in the middle of nowhere. The first thing we notice about this lovely home, is the wolf in front of it. I've never seen a dog in my life that looked as much like a wolf as that dog did. So we pull over, say a prayer that we won't be eaten by the wolf, and head over to the trailer. 

Everything was nice and muddy from the rain earlier that day, and we picked our way up to the front door dodging everything from random items of clothing, to car parts, to beer cans . . . you name it, it was there. So we get up to the screened-off porch, and we hear a TV inside. We knock . . . and we hear the door to the screened-off porch open, but we can't see the person who opened it, because a big black thing is covering the part of the screen we would need to see through to see this person. Then . . . we hear this voice. Now, this isn't just any voice, this is a voice of a horror movie. My first thought was "Oh fetch. We've found Satan." The voice was gravel-y, and sounded like it was the voice of a monster off a cartoon, or Batman or something, and it said, "What do you want?" 

Gosh, I so wish I had it recorded so you could hear what it sounded like. I was honestly ready to book it out of there, no joke. But good old Sister Morgan, with 14 months of weird missionary experiences behind her, puts on a smile and tells them happily that we're the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we are looking for Willis. Then the voice says, "Willis. They want you." I wanted to run more than ever now. You have no idea how creepy that voice was! It felt like I was in some scary movie or something! Anyway, Willis comes to the door, which we have to untie from the outside with a little string that was wound around the door and a nail on the side of the trailer. We talk to Willis--who really just wanted a bible and wasn't interested in what we had to say--give him a Book of Mormon, and leave. When we get back in the truck, needless to say, we laughed for a good long time.

#WelcomeToTheWVCM 

Yummy Easter

C------- Kids, real and adopted!

Eating at the Pig in a Poke

Welcome to Pikeville!

The Beauty of People

I'm not going to lie... I probably missed home the most this week since Ashland, knowing that you were going to rendezvous. That is the best thing we have ever decided to do. Luckily, pretty much everyone in Kentucky could be a rendezvous person, and that made me feel a little better. I missed being there so much though. I missed being with you guys, missed our rendezvous family, and missed watching Meg freak out every time a gun went off.

I wanted to cry when I heard about  Elder Ostler going home for knee surgery.  It's like hearing that my own brother tore his ACL!  You have no idea how amazing he was as a missionary and as a zone leader! He was doing such amazing things for the Buena Vista zone! I wonder who replaced him? We don't hear any mission news out here in the boonies of Pikeville. 

This week has been pretty cool. When I was working with M----- and B-----, it was so great to watch her stop smoking, but it was also cool because the H---- family was so crucial in that process and they were really a bigger means of support and learning than the missionaries were. That's really the way it should be. But this week, I got to start helping T---- stop smoking. And guess what?  He's doing it!  He hasn't touched a cigarette since Monday!!! And he's been smoking 37 years! I'm so proud of him! Funny story though, the other day we were at his house just doing a quick lesson and checking on how stopping smoking was coming, and I was kinda squinting at my scriptures I guess, and T----'s mom is in the room and she says, "baby, let me get you some glasses." So she goes into the other room, grabs me some reading glasses, and makes me keep them.  People out here are just like that---seriously the nicest people you'll ever meet.

Here's just a list of a few things that have happened lately:

We sang Amazing Grace with the Pikeville Elders at a funeral last Sunday. 

We picked up a muslim as an investigator.

We had a district meeting in Paintsville where we shared testimonies around a camp fire. (It was on Friday. I think that was God's little tender mercy for me because I didn't get to be around a campfire with y'all at rendezvous.)

We played a prank on the elders and gave me a black eye with make-up, and they all thought Sister Tobler punched me. The funny thing was, they literally believed it. 

Helped M----- with S------r's birthday party at a park in Open Fork.

Had an Easter egg hunt at the C------'s

Met a guy who made his own Tarahumara running shoes like the Indians in Born to Run.  He usually runs in New Balance minumus like me! 

Learned to make fried apple pies with the B----'s (they are my new grandparents! B----- L--- is on instagram and facebook and has a baking company! They are so cute! They look like Mrs. And Mr. Claus!!) 

Got to visit the W------- family (who were oringinally taught by President and Sister Pitt! Now all that's left to do is get V------- divorced so she and her new husband can get married and he can be baptized!) They are so good to us and being with them feels like being with our family. V------- picked us some tulips from her yard for Easter before we left their house! They also have a killer pit bull, so we can't get out of our car when we get to their house until they lock him up. They live at the very end of a crazy holler and they don't even have a phone.

Doing service this week I also had an interesting experience. We were at a different church helping pass out food and I had to man the station where the people signed their name and everything to get the food. The second man I helped looked at me as I passed him the pen and paper and told him what to do. He said, "Could you do it for me ma'am? I don't write." I was caught a little off guard. I looked back into his eyes, and I fell in love with him. It just hit me so hard in that moment---the beauty of people. Of being human. I don't really know why, but something about this humble man, his sweet question in his gorgeous southern accent, I just fell in love with everyone in that instant. People are so amazing, and so beautiful. It doesn't matter where you are, what you do, what you CAN'T do, or who your family is. I can't even explain all the emotions I felt in that brief moment, or why I even felt them. But all I know, is God loves that man. And so do I.

I love being here in Pikeville. This place has given me such beautiful experiences and I'm learning so much. I'm so glad I'm on a mission. So glad.  I hope y'all enjoyed Easter. I love you so much and pray for you constantly!